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 Apple is a company famous for their love of designs that are thin and light. And I would agree that this priority is justified. Perhaps nothing impacts your use of hand-held devices more than weight. The lighter they are, the easier they are to hold for long periods of time.
 At Apple’s September 14th iPhone event, the most shocking thing was the lack of any clear indication on when the Apple Watch Series 7 would be available. What happened? The Series 7 was the thing I was most excited about. And now we’re all still waiting. Apple simply promised that it would be coming “later this fall”.
 Apple is set to announce their new iPhone this coming Tuesday so the internet is all ablaze with the possibility of a new always on display for the iPhone. But I have a hard time seeing where this would be useful outside of one very narrow use case.
Let Samsung Deal With the South Korean Government  South Korea just became the only nation in the world that mandated that smart phone makers have to allow alternate payment processing options on their app stores. Apple and Google should completely ignore this new law.
 I’ve been meaning to comment on this very interesting story from the Wall Street Journal last week regarding Amazon opening up retail stores. I’ve been going against the grain for years now predicting that this would happen. I started predicting that Amazon would eventually veer into having their own stores when everyone in tech was predicting the opposite. They were all saying that bricks-n-mortar stores were going the way of the dinosaur. I said “BS”.
 In the last few days I’ve stumbled across a couple of stories that illustrate perfectly the rottenness of the Apple reporting community. I’ve written in the past about how many of the Apple “journalists” are a bunch of shills for the developer community but even I didn’t think that they could be this bad.
 It’s almost a true statement for me to say that the only thing I really want from the next iPhone is a 120hz refresh rate for the screen. This feature is that good.
MacOS Is Going Away  It was quite the splash of cold water to the face this week for the Mac fans. The long-time Mac friendly business Agilebits announced that they were dropping their native Mac app 1Password in favor of a cross-platform electron app. There are more hot takes on this than you count, but the bottom line which everyone agrees on is this, Agilebits didn’t see the Mac market as worth the effort.
 I was listening to the podcast Upgrade with Jason Snell and Myke Hurley this week and I honestly don’t know how Jason didn’t just start banging his head against the wall listening to Myke. Myke seems intent on closing his eyes to reality. Anytime that Jason brought up a fact, Myke refused to engage and simply responded with “No one understands that” or “that doesn’t matter”. How can you reason with someone who refuses to discuss the facts?
 The intelligence firm Omdia has come out with their latest analysis of the state of affairs in the smart speaker market and it’s not looking good for Amazon. Compared to the same quarter last year, Amazon’s market share has shrunk over 31%. Just as I predicted about 2 or 3 years ago, the seemingly unstoppable march of the Amazon Echo would eventually get reeled in by Apple and Google.
 Less than 2 months ago I had written about Apple’s collective dislike of wires and how that may relate to their vision of future iPad support. And now, lo and behold, there are leaks that Apple is working on monitors that incorporate the A13 chip from the iPhone 11. Here is an excerpt from what I wrote in June.
 I gotta hand it to Disney. They reeled me in like a masterful angler. After finishing their latest great TV show, Loki, I think my family would revolt if I tried to cancel our subscription.
 A little over two weeks ago I was reading Cameron Faulkner from The Verge talk about how happy he was with the new Nintendo Switch kickstand. It reminded me about how much I love my Logitech Combo Touch case for my 11” 2021 iPad Pro. A big reason is the handy kickstand on the back.
 Every now and then I’ll hear someone ask why anyone would need an Apple Watch. I don’t blame the person for asking the question because until you’ve worn one for a while, you don’t really see the utility of it. But it boils down to convenience.
 First, I’m not a fan of MKBHD. I only heard what he had to say about the iPadOS because Fernando Silva, a YouTube channel that I actually do like, was reacting to one of his videos. But I heard Marques repeat a theory that I disagree with. Which is that Apple handicaps the iPad to protect their Mac business.
 If you listen to any Apple-centric podcasts, it won’t be long before you hear this little cliché that bounces around in their little echo chamber. It goes something like “the iPhone would be nothing if it wasn’t for the apps”. It’s always brought up in relation to Apple asserting control over the platform which they built.
 Without a doubt, Apple’s amazing demonstration of Universal Control at this year’s WWDC was this year’s show stopper. To move your cursor from your Mac over to your iPad and drag a file back to your Mac is amazing. But I’m starting to see an odd theory based on this demo which is catching on. People are starting to think that Universal Control is Apple’s ultimate solution for bringing monitor support to the iPad. The idea is that Apple wants to create an “integrated ecosystem”. And in their definition of an integrated ecosystem the iPad can’t stand alone. I’m skeptical of this idea and here’s why.
 Apple unveiled their new operating systems this week at their annual developers conference. And they pulled one trick out of their hat that absolutely astounded me. It’s called universal control and it allows the user to use a mouse and keyboard across multiple Apple devices. Like you can move your mouse from your monitor over to your iPad and copy something to paste back onto your Mac. I know right! That’s amazing! No one else can do stuff like that.
 The tech blogosphere echo chamber is all afire with their takes on iPadOS. But since they’re all the same, you only need to read one or two and you get the gist of all the rest of them. In summary, they think that the M1 iPad Pros are great machines that are let down by iPadOS.
 There are two things that seem to be true about the plethora of articles written from people who say that they can’t get work done on an iPad Pro. First, they are Mac users. Second, they don’t seem to understand how iPad multi-tasking works. Or, they are grumpy that multi-tasking is different from their Mac.
 Yesterday when pointing out the stupidity of Ben Thompson’s Microsoft tweet I was in too much of a hurry to elaborate on one point. Here is his tweet again.
Imagine people arguing in 1998 that Microsoft deserves 30% of all software sales with zero alternatives allowed lmao – Ben Thompson  I just happened to catch a CNBC video about the Apple vs Epic court case. The host showed a screenshot of a tweet by Ben Thompson that was as follows:
Imagine people arguing in 1998 that Microsoft deserves 30% of all software sales with zero alternatives allowed lmao – Ben Thompson Ben is completely wrong on his point.  Anybody who tuned into the latest episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast heard developer Marco Arment go off the rails in his 40 minute anti-Apple tantrum. In a nutshell, he wants Apple to open up their iOS platform to allow anyone to bypass using the iOS AppStore to sell their apps. And he wants the government to unsheath their sword to force them to do it.
 I’ve switched to using an iPad Pro as my main device a few years ago but every now and then I try to get some work done on a MacBook Pro. Which rarely lasts more than a few hours before I’m running back to my iPad. Apple is slowly trying to modernize this aging platform but it still has a long way to go before it ever wins me back as a user.
 My 4-pack of Apple’s new AirTags arrived on Friday and these little things are amazing. You can now ping your keys just like your iPhone! My wife and two of my kids took 3 of the AirTags which left one for me.
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Robert PerezManufacturing and distribution analysis since 1993. 
Perezonomics is available in Apple News
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